How the Cashback World Loyalty Card Scam Works

Getting information from the people who promote the Cashback World Loyalty Card is a time consuming business. Nobody seems able to explain how it works, it just does. 

I've been told that Cashback World pays cashback every Thursday, regular as clockwork, with no problems. And I believe that.

So how does Cashback World work?

Retailer Gift Cards are big business. Lots of companies use shopping vouchers/giftcards as rewards and incentives for their employees and/or customers.

You can buy gift vouchers directly from the *Retailers or use a pre-loaded *Love2Shop giftcard which you can use in numerous National Retalier outlets.

(*Love2Shop and the majority of UK Retailers have now ceased supplying CashbackWorld with Giftcards/vouchers)

Companies that buy these giftcards in bulk, get a discount. 

This discount is paid for by the retailers who participate in the Love2Shop scheme.
Retailers such as Tesco's, M&S, Boots etc pay Love2Shop a fee, and in return Love2Shop displays their logos in it's advertising for stores that accept it's vouchers as payment.

So this system is a winner for everyone:
Love2shop (or similar) make money from the Retailers.
The Retailers make money from extra custom and companies get happy employees/customers who can spend a windfall in any National Store that accepts Love2Shop vouchers. 

So how does this fit in with Cashback World?

This is how I believe Cashback World works:

Cashback World bulkbuy giftcards from various sources and receive a discount for doing so:

Love2Shop.

Cashback World are members of Love2Shop and are bulk buying discounted Love2shop giftcards with the Cashback World symbol printed on them:

Other Love2shop examples:

National Retailers:

Cashback World are doing the same with other Retailer giftcards too,  as this helpful Cashback World promoter was eager to tell me:

'...no, Tesco not accepting the cashback world card.
It accepts the Tesco gift card which you only able to receive from cashback world.
Boots yes! If you have your new cashback world card with love2shop shop then yes!!!! You go there you give your cashback world card which you need to top up with money before you would like to pay.
It’s like a prepaid card!..'

So what all this means is that Cashback World are bulk buying various giftcards at reduced prices, and then re-selling them back to their members at full price.

Cashback World then give back a percentage of that payment as 'Cashback' and keep the rest. 

Look at this example:

This gentleman has brought a £50 Tesco giftcard and received back £1.50 in cashback (and 55 shopping points which I'll come back to later) which gives him a total of 3.0% cashback.  

'...£50 is the amount I spent on Tesco gift card! Because Tesco is working with us but only with gift card! £1 is the cashback I got back, 0,55 is the shopping point! 0,50 when I redeem discount voucher!!! 

So he has unwittingly described how the whole system works:

He buys a  £50 giftcard from Cashback World at full price.

He gets an immediate cashback of £1 and an additional 50p when he spends the gift card - an incentive to make him spend MORE to top up his card - thus earning Cashback World more money.

Now you may very well be thinking what is 'Cashback World' doing wrong?

It's giving it's members free money isn't it?

The answer, in theory, is 'yes'. But in practice, a very different story emerges. 

For a start, Cashback World/Lyoness/Lyconet are lying about the National Retailers that it claims are Merchants...

(https://taratalkstoday.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/lyoness-cashback-world-falsely-claiming.html)

 ...so they can more easily persuade 'SME's' - Small and Medium sized Enterprises

to join them.

There are three categories listed:
1/ Small and Medium sized enterprises
2/ Online shops
3/ Big business and strong brands

The majority of big brand online shops listed on the Cashback World website display a link that goes directly to the (retail) companies website. It has no purpose whatsoever other than to make you think the Retailer listed is a member of Cashback World - but the majority aren't.
And that goes for big business and strong brands as well. The majority of big brand retailers
are NOT merchants of Cashback World as claimed and do not accept the cashback world card (unless it has Love2Shop on it) and do not give shopping points.

Small and Medium sized enterprises - 'SME's'. 
It's these small businesses that pay to join Cashback World on one of these packages:
Light:  £400
Basic: £720
Professional £1040

And Cashback World will put these stores logo onto Cashback Worlds OWN card:

And because Cashback World claim that all these Retailers are Merchants:

When the majority are NOT, it entices the smaller businesses in to become members.
And after these smaller businesses have forked out up to £1000 to join, they then pay Cashback World a monthly fee for a terminal to accept the Cashback World cards and collect 'shopping points'.

I haven't managed to completely fathom out 'shopping points', but the internet is awash with comments stating they're impossible to spend and are a complete waste of time - so it's safe to assume they are pretty much worthless.

This is how Cashback World describes their use:

I've heard time and time again from various people who rave about Cashback World that all the major retailers ARE merchants, despite evidence to the contrary. So it's important to read the terms and conditions of the Cashback World site to prove once and for all that Cashback World ARE running a ponzi scam. They clearly say: 


'... a shopping community that enables participants (members) to receive Member Benefits by making a purchase from a loyalty merchant...' 'Members are registered...enabling them to purchase goods and services from Loyalty Merchants...'

I've spent the last month personally contacting most of the major Retailers in the UK:
John Lewis, B&Q, Morrisons, Boots, Tesco's, Costa Coffee, Harrods, Nike, Clarks, IKEA, 
Currys/PCWorld, GAP, Twinnings, Miss Selfridge, Adobe, Norton and many more.

ALL of these retailers say they do NOT belong to Cashback World, do NOT give out their free cards and do NOT have the Cashback World terminals in any of their stores. 
And since the Cashback World Terms and Conditions implicitly state that benefits can only come from 'Loyalty Merchants', they are openly admitting to a scam.

Add into this mix the fact that referral commissions of 0.5% are paid to anybody who signs somebody up, and earns when that person spends any money on the Cashback World Card, it looks like a classic ponzi to me.


3rd November 2018
Tesco's have told me they think Cashback World is a SCAM, they are NOT merchants of Cashback World and have NO affiliation with them:

All Tescos do is *sell Cashback World giftcards, just like they do with thousands of other people/organisations:

*Tesco's have now stopped selling Cashback World Gift Cards.

 

And as for the new 'E vouchers'...this chap has helpfully explained how the system works!

So in other words, the Tesco's E voucher has ZERO to do with Tescos! 
You have to log on to the CASHBACK WORLD site, pay Cashback World the FULL amount of money for a Tesco's gift voucher and then CBW give you an E voucher with Tescos name on it!
So where do you think the small amount of 'Cashback' you get comes from?
It comes from the SME's who join up and pay CBW vast sums of money to join because they think the likes of TESCO'S are Merchants - which they clearly are NOT!

And ARGOS have now confirmed they are NOT merchants of Cashback World either,
despite the lies from Facebook Groups who say otherwise:

 I forwarded this snip onto Argos customer services who have helpfully replied:

  'Love2Shop' Update:
Love2shop don't seem to be happy with Cashback World now, and affiliates seem to be having problems topping up their cards!

And this is a conversation between another affiliate and Love2shop:

Oh dear Cashback World...you really don't want to mess with the Financial Conduct Authority - they could really mess up your day!

10th July 2019
Refund Information:

https://taratalkstoday.blogspot.com/…/lyoness-refunds-now-a…

https://torino.repubblica.it/…/truffa_lyoness_i_consumator…/